Wiglett

About

Wiglett is a Water-type Pokémon that appears in the 2022 video game Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. While it shares the physical characteristics of the veteran series Pokémon Diglett, the Pokémon Company has made clear that it is a separate Pokémon entirely and not a regional variant of Diglett. After its debut in a September 28th, 2022, trailer, it quickly became the subject of memes and fan art on social media.

Origin

On September 28th, 2022, The Pokémon Company released a cinematic in which a group of Pokémon researchers stumbles across Wiglett, a white eel-like creature by the beach. They debate if it could be a regional variant of Diglett before concluding that it must be a separate species of Pokémon (shown below, left). The Pokémon Company also released a trailer showing how Wiglett acts in-game (shown below, right).

In the YouTube description^[1] for their gameplay trailer, The Pokémon Company wrote:

"It may look like Diglett, but it’s a completely different species of Pokémon. Wiglett pokes a part of its body out of the sand to feed in the ocean."

Spread

The Pokémon was a fast fan favorite in the Pokémon fandom, and memes and fan art about the character quickly followed its debut online. On September 28th, 2022, Twitter user @jakotens^[2] posted a comedic comic about Wiglett, gaining over 1,300 retweets and 9,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). That same day, Twitter user @_zerudez^[3] posted art of Wiglett hanging with both forms of Diglett and an Among Us crewmate, gaining over 10,000 retweets and 62,000 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Other pieces include a post on September 28th by Twitter user @Purtle28^[4] dressing up four Wigletts like The Wiggles that gained over 2,500 retweets and 14,000 likes in one day (shown below, left) and a post by user @CamoranR^[5] that placed a Wiglett on the cover of Frank Herbert's Dune that same day, gaining over 2,200 retweets and 14,000 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References